…in the UK, anyway.

Yes folks, on 1 September 1910, Heinz tomato soup went on sale in the UK for the first time at the very upmarket Fortnum & Mason.

(As an aside, interesting how many items that are today staples, started out as “luxury” goods…the power of the free enterprise system at work!)

“Heinz tomato soup: 100 years old”

(Not sure if that is really the best headline, even for a tinned soup!)

Have to say, tomato soup was never my favourite (although my father loved the stuff)…

…much preferred vegetable and “Scotch Broth” was a particular childhood delight.

The Heinz company was established long before 1910, of course.  According to the company website, it was established in 1869, although according to my copy of “This Day In Business History” the modern company (The H.J. Heinz Co.) was incorporated on July 27, 1900.

It was the third food-processing and marketing firm that Henry John Heinz had organised.  The first went bust and it was the second (set up with brother John and cousin Frederick) that became hugely successful.

One of the great business icons of our time and a noteworthy anniversary.

…or how is a copywriter to handle “American” English, “British” English…

…and even “Australian” English?!?

Had an email from a client recently with a query over the correct spelling of a particular word…

…is it with an “s” or a “z”?

Well, of course, it depends…

There are differences in usage between “American” and “British” english, so both are “correct” depending on which style is being used.

That leads on to the question of which style is appropriate.  My suggestions…

1. Stick to the usage that will be most appropriate to your audience.  Never use anything that is likely to jar with the reader

2. Be consistent!  Pick one style and stick to it.  There’s nothing worse than a hodgepodge of styles…looks very unprofessional

On the internet where there is likely to be a global audience, the usual convention is to use the “American” style.

Just to confuse things, in Australia the normal style is “English” but “American” is often used (words like “program” for example) and understood.  If in doubt I usually consult my trusty Reader’s Digest Wordpower Dictionary.

Apologies to any Kiwi readers if I’ve overlooked any differences in your local usage.

Also, for further guidance, there’s an excellent post over at Dean Rieck’s blog…

“American English vs. British and Australian English”

…which includes this handy resource…

“Differences Between American And British English”

Today we have the third and final part of my recent interview with copywriter Pete Godfrey in which we conclude our discussion of his “Business Profits Triangle”.

The focus is on copywriting and how the 3 sides of the triangle inter-relate.

Let’s rejoin the discussion…

*****

Kevin Francis:

As you have pointed out.  Alright and then on the final leg of the triangle, side of the triangle I should say, copywriting. Again, what are the most important things that people need to keep in mind about effective copy?

Pete Godfrey:

OK, well here’s the thing. And anyone who listens to this call and contacts you Kev, I should send you there my 7 steps I do before writing a word…

Kevin Francis:

No, no! Pete, sorry that’s secret insider stuff. I’m not going to allow you to give that away! It’s too important.

Pete Godfrey:

No, come on, just do it.  Now when it comes to copy the offer is everything; well we could take it a step further and go, the list is everything…who’s going to read your message?  But let’s just stick with the copy. The offer is everything, so the offer is what the customer gets, OK?  So in our world we don’t make a sale, we don’t get a customer to make a sale, we get a sale to make a customer.

So we want to make sure that we’ve got absolute great value to start with, especially with new customers. You leave them with a great taste in their mouth they’re going to be more inclined to purchase again.

So we make our offer, we do our numbers about how much can we afford to give away to get this customer who will then become a lifetime customer of ours.  So we do our numbers and we put in as much value as we can.

Now if you want to see a great offer, if your listeners go to www.emotionaladwritingletter.com they can see where I lead that sales letter, and that’s for my newsletter by the way, and where I lead with the free offer, I lead with all the good stuff they’re going to get just for signing up to my newsletter.  So that’s a great offer.

Kevin Francis:

It is, let me interject here. I’m obviously a subscriber to Pete’s newsletter and have been for many years.  In fact it’s one of the few newsletters I actually subscribe to because it’s one of the few that’s actually worth the subscription.

And look, I have to say Pete re-launched his newsletter a few months back with that new offer and even though I’ve been a long time subscriber I looked at what he was giving there and it was astonishing even to me what Pete had included in that offer.

So look, have a look at that because it is an excellent example of the kind of offer that’s going to produce results and the kind of thing you want to be putting together for your own clients.

Sorry Pete, I interrupted there mate.

Pete Godfrey:

So your offers are king but coming in a close second would be your headline. And this is where we spend a lot of our time, on headlines now.  And I go as far as saying it’s that top third of the page, that top half page of the sales letter, or the first screen they see on the website, that’s where I spend the most time.

Like on the headline, the pre head above the headline, the headline itself, the sub heads, how am I going to get them into this letter so it’s the “Greased slide” that I teach.  So that’s where I spend a hell of a lot of time.  But before even that I’ve got my offer already sorted.

Kevin Francis:

Pete when you talk about the offer, I mean we’re getting into a bit of advanced copy stuff here but I think it’s important for listeners. You’re not just talking about the physical product are you, or the actually content?  The offer’s more than that isn’t it?

Pete Godfrey:

Yeah it’s more than that. The offer includes a guarantee as well.

Because it all comes back to what they’re going to get.  Now okay, you can put all these great bonuses that you know that they’ll love, but also the guarantee comes in and it says you know, and if you don’t like it you can keep the bonuses as my way of apologizing for wasting your time; something like that.  So the guarantee is, I’ve always said it and always believe it, the guarantee is part of the offer as well.

Because it all comes down to what the customer gets.

Kevin Francis:

Yeah.  What they get and what it’s going to do for them, isn’t it?

Pete Godfrey:

So I like, you know we use a lot of “clicks” in copywriting and one that I usually use a lot is future pacing. And that’s where I take them into the future and show them what their lives could be like when they’ve actually got the benefits of the product that I’m selling.

Now here’s a great tip for anyone on the call. It’s a question I developed a few years ago that really clarified what it was I was really selling and the question is simply to ask yourself before you write a word of copy “What am I really selling?”

Now to explain this I’ve got a couple of ways. Say you’re selling diets. There were a couple of years there where I was doing a lot of weight loss promotions and so for a couple of days I was on the phone to a lot of women that have been on weigh loss diets. They’ve lost some weight, they’ve put it back on so this was my ideal market. So I was writing to women who have been on diets before.  So I had to understand Kev exactly what it is about these women, what do they feel, what do they think.

All that stuff, otherwise as a mere male I wouldn’t had a hope in hell of selling my client’s products.  But one statement out of all those women really hit me in the gut and she said “Pete I just want to be able to leave the lights on as I undress in front of my husband”.  Now that’s a very, very, very emotional statement.

But I realized there in that particular second what I was really selling wasn’t a diet. What I was really selling was sexiness, what I was really selling was self confidence, what I was really selling was the dream of her being down the beach this summer in a pair of bikinis.

So I get very, very clear and say selling home insurance, or burglar alarms, or something like that, what you’re really selling is peace of mind. You’re not selling what the thing is, what you’re really selling is the feeling it’s going to give your prospects.

Now this is where I see so many mistakes in copy. You see it all the time Kev, they’re selling the product, they’re not selling that end benefit, that hidden benefit that my good old mate Ted Nicholas calls it, you know, the hidden benefit.

So get very clear, if there’s one big tip out of this call for any copywriters or anyone on the call that are making their own offers, that is it. What am I really selling?  Once you get clear on that you know, you’re half way there.

Kevin Francis:

Yeah, okay, that’s a great point for people and if they grasp that then they’ll see an immediate increase in their response.

Pete Godfrey:

Yeah, don’t try selling your product, sell the feelings that your prospect’s going to get from the product.

Kevin Francis:

Alright, well Pete, let’s summarize here briefly. You know you’ve explained the 3 elements of the business profits triangle. Why it’s essential to have all 3. Can you just recap for us, you know typically how these in the typical business all work together and flow together.

Pete Godfrey:

Well you know, when I do a copy job I don’t just do copy, I do the whole strategy, the works.  So when I take on a client, say he wants to do a teleseminar.  OK what’s the strategy behind that teleseminar? That’s the marketing…we’ve got to get the strategy and the objective worked out right from the word go.  So the objective might be we give them great content and then we try to sell them into a live event. OK that is the strategy, that’s the objective.  So I will then craft the content for the teleseminar so everything builds to a natural conclusion of the offer to attend the live event.

So the copy involved in this would include emails, emails to the list, might include JV emails, it could include postcards or direct mail, it could include a lot of things, but that’s the copy.  But the marketing strategy behind the copy is what’s going to get bums on seats to the teleseminar.

That’s sort of, and with the mindset my biggest job, and I’ll bet you get this too Kev, is managing clients’ expectations.

Now the clients I deal with these days don’t need to do much of that, they’re pragmatic, they know if they send 500 letters out that they’re not going to get 498 orders. So they’re very pragmatic.

But when dealing with new clients they’ve got the strange idea that if they send out 1,000 emails, or 1,000 postcards, they’re going to get like a 50% response rate or something like that.  So the mindset side of that for a copywriter and for yourself if you’re doing it yourself is manage your own expectations you know, and don’t believe in the tooth fairy.

I mean this stuff works if you get it right but you know, as I always say Kev…I’ll pop the champagne…when I do a letter for a client or something, or do some strategy, I send it to the client, he gets on the phone, or she gets on the phone, she’s wrapped, you know it’s excellent Pete, you know I’ll do a dance.

And I’ll say, well you know let’s run it first and then I’ll pop the champagne cork.  Because it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing this stuff, you can put every element in there but you still won’t know whether it’s going to work or not, okay.

Thankfully my batting average is pretty damn good and I get more winners than losers, but it’s all a test.  And that’s the beauty about direct response mate, you know it’s not failing, it’s just a test.

Kevin Francis:

Well it strikes me as we’re discussing this here that I mean you’re probably familiar with the ultimate success formula that’s often talked about by people like Tony Robbins. Which if people are not clear, you know just so we’re clear on what we’re talking about, in a nutshell Step 1 is decide what it is you want, or be clear on what it is you want. Step 2 is take action. Step 3 then is get feedback and see if what you’re doing is actually getting you closer to your objective and then Step 4 is if what you’re doing is not getting you closer to your objective do something else and start again and check if that’s getting you closer to your objective.

And it seems to me when we’re marketing you know the direct response methodology is obviously ideally suited to that framework.

Pete Godfrey:

Of course and that’s the beauty of it mate. You know we deal in principles.

Techniques come and go. Yeah I keep up with techniques that a lot of young people are obsessed with every last technique that Google’s doing, or Facebook’s doing, or what everyone else is doing and I buy a couple of the new courses from the so-called gurus like Frank Kern and Jeff Walker and people like that.  But I’m plugged in to principles too and that’s why I spend a lot of money with Dan Kennedy each month.

But you know principles is where the money is and these principles of direct response if you follow them and get it right it does work and as you said you’ve got to analyse your results. If they’re not working what can we do to change it?

Because as you know yourself Kev, if you’re doing a copywriting job you know sometimes you’ll have 2 or 3 ways in your head how you could lead with this, or how you could structure things. As a copywriter with experience you get better and better at picking what you think is the best one.

But I’ve always got a plan B and a plan C for a client, and sometimes I’ll send him multiple different headlines and multiple structures as well so he can quickly test one against the other. And these days online you can do split testing you know live can’t you Kev, that’s even better.

Kevin Francis:

Alright Pete, look that’s fantastic, I mean we’ve gone 45 minutes now, that’s great, that’s a lot more than I was expecting, thank you for that.

Pete Godfrey:

OK Kev.

Kevin Francis:

Now how do people find out more about how they can put your business profits triangle in their own business and find out more about what you’re doing and how you can help them?

Pete Godfrey:

OK.  They go to www.petegodfrey.com. I’ve got a great free gift there for them just by putting their email address in. That plugs you into Pete’s world so you hear from me.

Also if you want my newsletter that actually gets posted out every month, it’s a printed newsletter and this is what the triangle was based on, the newsletter. You can go to www.emotionaladwritingletter.com and it’s a yearly subscription fee so there’s no recurring fees, it’s just a one off payment and you get 12 months subscription, plus you get a smorgasbord of bonuses because I practice what I preach with offers.

Actually, what I did put in there Kev that’s been extremely valuable to my members is one of the bonuses is 20 minutes on the phone with me. So in 20 minutes we can cover a lot of ground and it gives me a great opportunity to get to know new members as they come in.  So www.petegodfrey.com that’s my blog and www.emotionaladwritingletter.com is for my newsletter.

Kevin Francis:

OK.  And I can highly recommend Pete’s newsletter; as I say I subscribe to it, it’s one of the few marketing letters I actually do bother to subscribe to cause it’s well worth the content and it’s one of those when it comes in the mail each month it gets ripped open straight away and I sit down and start reading it you know without delay.

So I can highly recommend it so go and check out the newsletter there at www.emotionaladwritingletter.com and Pete’s blog is over at www.petegodfrey.com.

Well Pete look thanks once again, that was excellent, some excellent stuff in there and I very much appreciate you being here with us today, thank you.

Pete Godfrey:

That’s fine Kev, we’ll have to do it again another time buddy, thanks.

*****

You can find the first 2 parts of this interview at the links below…

“Pete Godfrey’s ‘Business Profits Triangle’ – Part 1″

“Pete Godfrey’s ‘Business Profits Triangle’ – Part 2″

Here’s the second part of my recent interview with Ace copywriter and marketer Pete Godfrey talking about his “Business Profits Triangle”.

In this section, we move on to discussing the second side of the triangle and that’s marketing.

More specifically, direct response marketing.

Also, discover what “Evil” really is…

…plus some practical tips on mindset.

Back to the interview…

*****

Kevin Francis:

Alright, that’s good stuff there Pete.  I’ve got you a little bit off-track there but the mindset that’s an entire call in itself, we might talk about that a little later.

The next thing in terms of your own personal journey, it was really marketing next before copywriting, if I understand you correctly?

Pete Godfrey:

Yeah, I was a marketer because I started a mail order business so I had to learn the mechanics, I had to learn the strategies behind direct response marketing, and then I soon realized I didn’t have the money to hire a copywriter. And it was a lot harder to find a good copywriter back then as well compared to these days…

Kevin Francis:

When was this? This was back in the 1990s right, late 90s?

Pete Godfrey:

Yeah, back late 1999 and 2000.

So you know this is, so I got all that down pat and I realized, well I soon realized that copy is king; and you can have the best frigging marketing strategy going but its going to nosedive if you haven’t got that copy that matches that market to a ‘t’.  So I spent a lot of time honing my chops on copywriting, and I still do to this day. You know, I’m still plugged in to some high level groups, you know I never think I know it all, you know that Kev. I’m always reinventing myself and I’m always learning more and I’m always trying, I’m not scared to try new things.

Kevin Francis:

Yes, despite your “knock about” image Pete, I know you’re fanatical about continually learning and staying up-to-date on the latest developments.  There are few people that I’ve come across who have such an encyclopedic knowledge of marketing and what’s going on.

Pete Godfrey:

Yeah it’s bordering on obsession but I try to be humble about it.

Kevin Francis:

Alright, so for copywriters you’d recommend, and business owners in particular, you’d recommend finding out about marketing before copywriting?

Pete Godfrey:

Yeah, look, learning direct response, learning what it means to make an offer. Now direct response is what we do as opposed to image ads. Like with image ads you get your name on TV or something and it’s all about your company and that’s it.

We’re not about that, we’re about asking for a response.  So that response could be anything, it could be go to this website, it could be ring this 1800 number, it could be fill out this coupon, whatever. But learn the basics of direct response marketing first, and then start putting your business on a diet of direct response and start chipping away at all the image crap that you’ve got no sense of is it working or not working.  With direct response, as you know Kev, we track the numbers, we know to the last dime, the last cent, whether or ads worked or not.

And that’s the beauty of direct response.  And I’ve got some clients that I like to work for because they’re obsessive with tracking everything. And they’re obsessive with building micro lists inside their main lists. So each micro list, depending on what they’ve ordered before, get different offers than the main list.

And that’s where the money is because as we always say Kev, you’ve got to match your message to your market precisely.  And the guys and girls making the big money in direct response are the ones that track everything obsessively.

And they have got these little micro lists.  You know they might have a 20,000, 30,000 list, but they may have one email, or one postcard going out, or one sales letter, going out to just 500 of them.  However, it’s a very, very targeted offer.

And you know, these days its getting harder people are scared. I’ve had to put out a lot of fires the last couple of weeks with clients that aren’t making as much as they were last year, and they’ve just got to work a bit harder.  We’ve got to match our messages a bit tighter to get the same results.

Because one thing I’ve noticed over the last few years, and this is good for any copywriter, or any marketer on the call, is that people are looking for things that are adjusted to them. And the more that we can massage our message so it’s just for them the higher our response will be.

So we’re always micro managing the list, you know.  That’s where the money is too. It’s all about the list as you know mate, it’s all about who gets your letter, who goes to your website.  Its not about having you know 100,000 people on the email list that you just broadcast the same shit to. It’s about who is on that list and your relationship with them.  And that’s what we’re all about in direct response, is building relationships with customers, not just a transaction.

Kevin Francis:

Well as you say, I mean what you’ll find in most businesses is the old 80/20 rule. But there’s going to be a particular group  of your customers who are going to be where you make most of your money.

Pete Godfrey:

Exactly.

Kevin Francis:

And so few people actually recognize those important customers and treat them well…

Pete Godfrey:

And they treat all customers as equal and they’re not.

And it’s the same with copywriting, for the copywriters on this call, all clients aren’t equal, you know.

Some get more attention from me than others.

And that’s simply an economic reality. I don’t treat them all the same.

Kevin Francis:

Yeah, that’s right.  Well here’s a little example, this week from Pete practicing what he preaches with that.  I was delighted to get your special report this week Pete for your subscribers, Frank Kern’s “3 Reasons Why People Fail”.

A little extra in the mail, completely unexpected but a good 8 pages of solid content. An example of Pete going the extra mile with the subscribers there.

Pete Godfrey:

And there’s a lot going on in that tool kit, and there’s a lot going on in that too that we can talk about another day. But yeah its great content but yeah the strategy behind it as well is important too.

Kevin Francis:

Alright well look we’ve talked about…let’s recap for a moment, I think people have got the overall message but Pete just recap why the “Business Profits Triangle” and grasping it is so important for business owners.

Pete Godfrey:

Well it keeps you on track. You know there are 3 important things that you’ve got to be working on…great copy backed up with great marketing, backed up with the right mindset.  And when I talk about mindset I’m not talking about you know let’s go happy clapping around a bonfire at midnight type of thing. I’m talking about being real…I believe in the law of attraction to a certain extent but I believe it’s a process not a law in itself. So I think it’s a process that we do.  But I’m also very, very pragmatic as well Kev as you know, the numbers don’t lie.

And an important thing to remember too you know I’ve been doing a fair few critiques the last couple of weeks and people are so emotionally involved with their product.  I mean you know, get your emotions out of it.

You know, and they don’t want to hear any criticism, but my job is to be the pragmatic one and say, this is the facts as I see it, you know this is the facts. And then I’ll start to give opinions.  But the facts don’t lie.  Now you know I’ve got a client in Europe, he’s got hundreds of products mate, and if an ad doesn’t work he just gets rid of it and moves on.

And he taught me a lot about getting the emotions out the way.  And you can’t let yourself be emotionally involved…if something doesn’t work you know, change the angle.

Kevin Francis:

Well it comes back to the mindset doesn’t it. I mean it’s something you always talk about Pete when you say you know your definition of “evil”. Share with the listeners your definition of evil.

Pete Godfrey:

Well the definition of evil is anything that blocks money coming your way!

But also another definition of evil is one…is one way.

Now I see a lot you know people are only getting customers through one way. I see people using one media.  I go on to Facebook occasionally and I see a lot of so-called marketers there but they’re only using one media…Facebook.

And here is what I found extraordinary, was this one lady made a post, now she’s been to some of my training and she knows my thoughts on this but she made a post and she said because Facebook is incorporating a members’ side and all this rah, rah, rah, and all this new applications they’re sorting out that she doesn’t need her website now, she can put it all on Facebook.

Kevin Francis:

Okay, good luck with that one.

Pete Godfrey:

OK? But who owns that frigging list?

It ain’t her. You know…Facebook can change the rules any time they want.

So one strategy for Facebook and it’s blatantly obvious to anyone that’s done a bit of marketing, is that your so-called friends on Facebook you need to get them over to your email list.

OK. That’s your objective, to build a relationship with people, help them out where you can but get them on to your email list because you own your email list.

So that’s my definition…one is an evil number.

And also anything that blocks money coming your way is evil.

Kevin Francis:

Absolutely.  Why I wanted to go into that, we’re going back to the 3 components, and in essence when we talk about mindset it’s very easy to get off into sort of “Woo Woo Land” and be nonspecific.

But you’re very, very pragmatic on the mindset aren’t you. I mean that’s the message that’s coming over here.  And I mean if you want to sum up the key thing that you’ve got to grasp in the mindset arena, how would you describe that?

Pete Godfrey:

Well you’ve got to believe in your heart that opportunities are everywhere. Get rid of the negative self talk is a big one for people, and you know look there’s a lot of crap out there that says if you believe in this stuff the universe will take care of it all. You know wake up, go pray to the universe and next minute I’ve got a brand new car.  It ain’t going to happen.

There was a movie doing the rounds that I won’t mention a couple years ago that everyone jumped on like a swarm of screaming banshees, but one thing that movie left out was that you have to take action.

So I’m all for thinking positively. I’m all for affirmations. I’m all for visualizing your end goal and feeling that end goal with emotions. I’m all for dream books where you stick pictures of what, you know your car, a car that you want to have, that you want, maybe a new spouse, I don’t know, and using those dream books as motivation. But I’m also very pragmatic and I’ll list out the action steps I’m gonna take to achieve those goals.

Now that’s the big thing missing. The universe won’t provide for you if you just sit around on your backside singing songs of praise.  Now when I say that to some people it offends them and I don’t mean to offend but it just comes naturally.

But that’s my opinion and it works for me, it works for my clients, it works for my members. We’re big positive thinkers but we you know we expect positive results because we’ve done the work that leads to that…positive results.

Kevin Francis:

Yeah, because you’re combining it with the right strategies.

Pete Godfrey:

Exactly.  And here’s another thing Mate, bad stuff happens to good people.  You know some people take this attraction thing too far. You get cancer and you’ve attracted it…you know, I mean come on.  I’m a little guy Kev, I like to swim in the shallow end of the pool…

Kevin Francis:

We’ll leave all that deeper stuff out then…

Pete Godfrey:

Yeah, if people believe that, good on them. But what I’ve seen a lot of over the years is people that go to one of these courses after another and they just get more and more mixed up and they never seem to have any money in their wallet.  But the universe will provide.

Kevin Francis:

What we’re interested in here is the practical application of mindset in the context of making money here in a business, right?

Pete Godfrey:

Well here’s what I do mate every morning. I think Tony Robbins calls it setting your intention, I call it getting my shit together.

And what I do is I start off the day with gratitude and this only takes me 10 minutes. I start the day with gratitude, I go through my to-do list after that and visualize getting it done, how it’s going to feel when I get it done. And I’ve got positive expectations that all this will happen and I remove any negative talk right from my head.

Once I’ve cleared my head like that and I always start with the gratitude, I’m right for the day here.

Because I’ve got a plan.  If I don’t do that to-do list the night before and if I don’t go through it that next day, my day is unstructured and I don’t get nearly as much done.

Kevin Francis:

OK…So you do your to-do list the night before, before you go to bed?

Pete Godfrey:

Yeah, I just sit out on the back deck, maybe sip a glass of red and go through all the stuff I need to get accomplished for that day.

And by giving gratitude, by actually thanking…some people call it the Universe, I call it God, whatever you want, but by giving gratitude you open yourself up to receive so much more, you know.

You know I know people from my past life, what I used to call my past life. You know they wake up grumpy, and they wake up itching to be offended.  And that whole negative mindset, and when I’m speaking to someone like that at a seminar I’m very intuitive, I can feel that, I can feel their energy.

And I get away… because that energy will suck…will suck your energy out. And that’s as far as I’ll go down that track, you know.

But you can feel the poisonous energy about them, a negative energy.

Kevin Francis:

Yeah it’s a weird thing but you’re absolutely right on that.

Pete Godfrey:

And they’ll infect you just like a flu, just like a virus.

Kevin Francis:

Alright.  Well look let’s move onto the marketing aspect. Again really the key thing with marketing is to understand direct response and principles of direct response. I think that is your main message there I guess?

Pete Godfrey:

Yeah.  And marketing is what Dan calls…he’s got his triangle too you know. Dan Kennedy, he’s got market that who you’re selling to, message that’s your copy and then media.

So you get those 3 things right in marketing, your message going to the right market via the correct media, that’s what marketing is about.

And never just rely on one media because that’s evil as we’ve discovered.

*****

That concludes part 2 of the interview. Part 3 to follow tomorrow.

You can find part 1 here…

“Pete Godfrey’s ‘Business Profits Triangle’ – Part 1″

More about Pete Godfrey at…

Pete’s Blog – www.PeteGodfrey.com

Pete’s Newsletter – www.EmotionalAdWritingLetter.com

Recently had the chance to interview my good mate Pete Godfrey, one of Australia’s (the world’s even!) best direct response copywriters.

The topic was what Pete calls the “Business Profits Triangle”…

…how mindset, marketing and copywriting combine to deliver sustainable business success.

I’ve split the interview into 3 parts.  The first one deals mainly with the issue of mindset.

Without further ado…

*****

Kevin Francis:

Right, OK everybody and welcome to this special broadcast interview today. My name is Kevin Francis of “Maximum Results Copywriting” and I’m delighted today to have as my special guest master copywriter Pete Godfrey.  Pete welcome.

Pete Godfrey:

Hi Kev, it’s great to be here today.

Kevin Francis:

Alright.  Pete’s going to talk to us about his “Business Profits Triangle” methodology which is essential for success in whatever business you happen to be in. This is a concept that you need to master if you really want to be successful long term.

Now a brief introduction to Pete, for those of you who aren’t familiar with him. Pete’s been active in direct response marketing for well over a decade now.  Known as “The Wizard of Words” he’s developed a very keen eye as to what it takes to successful in business.

Pete’s one of Australia’s most successful and highest paid copywriters because of his uncanny ability to turn the written word into money.  That’s why clients line up and almost beg him to do their promotions, and his client list reads like a “Who’s Who” of the world’s savviest entrepreneurs including people like Mal Emery, Pat Mesiti, Tom Caraccio, Rowena Helps, Rick Otton, Daryl and Andrew Grant, Bill Zheng, Matt and Amanda Clarkson, Roberta Faddoul and many, many others.

This “Working class rebel made good” or as he often describes himself the one time “Rebel without a clue” is also a top level copywriting trainer, having trained hundreds of budding copywriters including Bret Thomson, Bill Dimitrovski and Steve Plummer, amongst others, and he’s even managed to teach me a few things as well.

Pete Godfrey:

I was going to say, don’t leave yourself out of this.

Kevin Francis:

Pete is a business coach as well and recently set up his Private Wealth Group which has been extraordinarily successful, People pay him $29,000, almost $30,000 a year to be part of that group.  He’s also got a monthly newsletter called “The Emotional Ad Writing & Marketing Letter”, which as far as I’m concerned is essential reading for anyone in business.

His irreverent style and no BS attitude offends some, attracts others.  And you can find out more about Pete at  www.PeteGodfrey.com and he’ll be telling a little bit more about some of his other stuff later on. But let’s get straight to the point here today.

Pete Godfrey:

Pete’s life story in 2 quick minutes.

Kevin Francis:

His life story in 2 quick minutes and how he came to…

…alright, he’s off now, I’ve completely lost control of this interview so I’ll simply hand over to Pete and say, Pete welcome once again.

The “Business Profits Triangle”. What is it, why is it important and how did it come about?

Pete Godfrey:

Well it’s come about over many years, as you know mate.  I’ve been publishing my Emotional Ad Writing & Marketing Letter since 2006, and there’s 3 important elements that I cover in that newsletter that became very clear after a year or so of writing the damned thing I wasn’t quite aware of the first year.  But then I started taking notice of the articles and the subject matter and it comes down to 3 things and that’s why I created the business profits triangle.

Because these 3 things are the critical things that you need to grow any business whether you’re a copywriter, or marketer, an entrepreneur, or you own a fish and chip shop.  The first one’s copywriting, the next one’s marketing and the third and final one is mindset.  So basically copywriting to me is getting the right words, the right message out to the right market.  And that’s what I cover in detail in the newsletter.

So copywriting is all about getting that message that’s going to attract and persuade and influence your chosen market.  However, I realized early on in my career when I started this about 10 years ago that copywriting doesn’t live in isolation.

The best copywriters, and you’re a great marketer yourself Kev, we’re all great marketers. So we’ve got to understand the principles of marketing.  So copywriting without the right marketing strategies is doomed to fail right from the word go. But marketing basically is all the things that we do to attract people to us and to get them coming back again, and again, and again.

Now together, great copy with great marketing strategies, is what you need, is what you should be aiming for.  But the third one, and some say maybe the most important one is the mindset. And that’s what I cover each month in the newsletter as well, as you know buddy.

Mindset to me is getting rid of all the crap that interferes with me making money.

So those first few years like, let’s go back Kev, like those first few years that I started, I started there in 1999, in mail order business, writing my own ads, writing my own copy, developing my own products, etc.  Back then I was still working as a working class guy doing BS jobs right throughout Australia.

Now I’d been doing that for nearly 20 years and my mindset was really on, lack. My mindset was on “money is hard to make”, my mindset wasn’t switched on to the opportunities around me.  So the first couple years yeah I worked hard on my copywriting skills, my marketing skills. I bought every damned product you could imagine, I’ve got you know, a very big library here.

But I also worked hard on the mindset side to get rid of all that crap that was holding me back you know, and every thought I had, every action I’d take, every feeling I’d get, I always ask myself you know is it taking me closer to my end goal, or is it moving me away?

And that’s what a lot of my clients love. They say to me, you know Peter I really dig the way that you keep out of all the bullshit, you know you don’t let things distract you, you don’t get involved in other people’s gossip, you don’t get involved in the dramas.  And the answer is simply, no I don’t because that’s taking you away from the end goal.  So I’ve got a saying, “Elevate your thinking” and that’s what I try to do.

Kevin Francis:

OK that’s interesting.  So let’s go back to that, you know when you were still working at ordinary jobs and things. So what really came first for you, was it mindset?

Pete Godfrey:

Of course.  I used to haunt garage sales and I come across a couple of great old books, you know the standard classics “Think And Grow Rich”, “The Magic of Thinking Big” and some of Earl Nightingale’s and all that sort of stuff.

So I immersed myself in that and that was a revelation for me Kev, because I didn’t realize how powerful this stuff is and I didn’t realize that there was an escape route out for me. You know I was in my early 30’s, I’d been doing bullshit jobs since I was 15, just travelling around like a gypsy nomad. I didn’t realize that there was this whole other world that I had access to and I could access it through changing my own thoughts and behaviours, and that was a breakthrough.

Kevin Francis:

Yeah.  Was it the case that you just stumbled across one of these books one day? Or did you have a mentor, or somebody recommend these to you, what was the trick?

Pete Godfrey:

I stumbled, and if you believe what a lot of people believe you know, maybe it was the universe calling out to me that day Kev.

Pointing me to that garage sale and placing my hand on that book. I don’t know, but whatever happened I was damned lucky.  Then I got obsessed. Obsessed with how could I escape and then I come across the magic world of what we used to call back in the old days, pre-internet. You know mail order.

And that’s basically direct response marketing.

Kevin Francis:

Can you remember the very first you know breakthrough book you stumbled across?

Pete Godfrey:

I bought Peter Sun’s books, oh you mean on the mindset stuff?

Kevin Francis:

On the mindset stuff.

Pete Godfrey:

I think it was The Magic of Thinking Big.

Kevin Francis:

OK, alright, yeah good book, yeah.

Pete Godfrey:

But before that, I tell a lie, before that it was John Keogh.

He’s a great guy, from Canada I think. But it was talking about …each different chapter, they had a chapter on visualization, they had a chapter on affirmations.  So I would do this religiously Kev, I didn’t do this half-assed. You know what I’m like, I jump in boots and all and pray to God that there’s some water in the pool then start swimming like mad.  And that’s what I did. I immersed myself in this stuff.

One thing, for the listeners too. When you start getting into this mindset stuff, when you start realizing this stuff, there’s an urge to share with everyone this new world that you discovered.  The trouble is your outer world hasn’t changed so your friends and family are very, very skeptical. So I learned to keep this stuff to myself after a while because your inner world changes before the outer world does. And you can’t bypass that step.  You know, your thoughts and behaviours and actions change, and then eventually your reality changes.

But there’s a time space between when you change inside until the outer world catches up.  Now that’s the frustrating part; and that was probably a year or two for me before it came together. And that’s where people can easily just stop and say, oh this positive thinking is bullshit, you know.

But that’s the critical time.  Luckily I just kept on pushing on through all those doubts and you know I still work on my mind every day. It’s one of the things I do.

*****

That concludes the first part of the interview.  Part 2 to follow tomorrow.

More about Pete Godfrey at…

Pete’s Blog – www.PeteGodfrey.com

Pete’s Newsletter – www.EmotionalAdWritingLetter.com

…plus some inspiring life lessons as well.

Now, I confess, I had never heard of Tyler Perry until I came across this article…

“Interview: Tyler Perry, movie mogul”

The guy has a multi-million dollar media empire but is little known outside America.

Now, couple of things of note here.

Firstly, the guy’s story is amazing and inspirational.

Secondly, when you read between the lines you can see how he has used direct response marketing principles to build his fantastically successful business.

Couple of examples…

As another income stream, he also began filming the performances and selling the DVDs. The piracy rate was fierce, he laughs, but it helped spread the word, and in five years his mailing list grew to more than a million names.

…and…

When he decided to branch out into TV in 2007, he cut a similarly canny deal. He made the first 10 episodes of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne at his studios, and offered it to the TV networks to show for nothing, alerting his mailing list when it was due to be screened. Thanks to his mailing list again, it drew record-breaking viewing figures, so they ordered 24 more.

Plus some plain old-fashioned marketing common-sense…

Despite his wealth, he has never lost touch with the needs of his audience. Aware that not all of them have bank accounts, let alone credit cards, he always gives them the option of paying by money order. Because big chains such as Block buster are rarely found in poorer neighbourhoods, he approached small shops in black areas to rent out his DVDs. After every performance of his plays, he comes on stage to chat to the audience, tell them what he is up to next, and play them a trailer of the next film or TV show.

The old “Cliff hanger” technique, or “coming soon”!

I have no idea if this guy does his own marketing or has someone to do it for him.  But whatever the circumstances, he has built an extraordinarily successful business with the help of classic direct response marketing techniques.

Fascinating interview and well worth the read.

Ace copywriter John Carlton has a new post on his blog titled…

“Full Tilt Boogie”

What the heck is that about, you might wonder?

All about marketing and business lessons from high stakes poker players.

It’s something I’ve discussed before…

…that in business it’s all about stacking the deck in your favour.

Direct response marketing (and copywriting) is the best way to do that…

…but even that’s not infallible.

Read the whole thing…

…and try and avoid that “Full Tilt Boogie”.

It’s not cool…

…in fact, as my good mate Pete Godfrey would say, “It’s evil!”

…or more specifically, beware of “Jumping The Shark” in your marketing.

For those of you not familiar with the expression, “Jumping the shark” means…

“The moment of downturn for a previously successful enterprise”

(More details on the origin of the term in Tom Fishburne’s original post “jumping the shark”.)

Product proliferation (including mindless line extensions) and gimmicky promotions are one example.

Trendy “rebranding” exercises like this one…

“And so it came to pass: why Aviva is in the toilet – a sage of marketing ignorance and hubris.”

…is another.

In most cases, it all comes back to ignoring tried and tested marketing principles.

So, if it ever seems like a good idea to strap on the water skis and look for the shark…

…think again!

Came across this upcoming movie that has been attracting interest from a number of movie buffs.

Main point of interest is that Ben Affleck not only stars but also directs.

Er…”So what?” you might ask.

Well, Ben’s debut at directing “Gone Baby Gone” received critical plaudits and given the current uninspiring state of filmmaking this new movie is awaited with interest.

And I’ve got to say, it does look intriguing…have a look for yourself…

OK, let’s score this…

A – Attention

Spooky open, straight into the action and then cuts to the “story”.  Gets a lot done quickly in my view.

Score 2.0

I – Interest

OK, the story line and the background gets developed, characters are introduced.  Lots of action and this definitely promises to be an “edge of the seat” type movie.

Note the “credibility” elements used here referring to previous hit movies.  Doesn’t always work, of course.  For example “Green Zone” bombed despite desperate attempts to link it to the successful “Bourne” movies.

Note also, as part of the development here there’s a plot “giveaway”.  I guess it’s necessary otherwise the rest of the trailer isn’t going to make sense. And it leaves me wondering what else might be going on so it doesn’t damage the effectiveness of the trailer.

Definitely piqued my interest at this stage.

Score – 2.5

Desire – D

I’ve mentioned in previous posts in this series how in most movies like this we kind of know what’s going to happen.  Basically, the “Good Guys” are going to win, so it’s more a question of seeing how they do it.

But this movie is a little different.  There’s a degree of ambiguity here.  It’s not really clear how this is going to work out.  I’m intrigued!

Score – 2.5

This looks like a superior “Cops and Robbers” movie and reminds me of elements of the classic “Heat” (one of my all time favourites).  The trailer does a pretty good job.

Bonus Mark – 1.0

Total – 8.0

Let me know what you think!

Here’s our regular look ahead at upcoming events you might be able to build a marketing promotion around.

In Australia, spring is here and quite a few things are happening this month…

1 September – The “official” first day of spring and also “National Wattle Day”

3 September – Australian National Flag Day

5 September – Fathers Day

17 September – Citizenship Day

23 September – Spring Equinox

25 September – AFL Grand Final

27 September – Queens Birthday (WA)

…plus there’s the Floriade (Austalia’s largest flower festival) from September 11 and the 160th Royal Melbourne Show (September 18-28).

Meanwhile, in the northern hemisphere…

…it’s the end of summer and autumn approaches.

10 September – Ideas Day

15 September – UN International Day Of Democracy

19 September – Talk Like A Pirate Day (!)

27 September – UN World Tourism Day and World Heart Day

23 September – Autumn Equinox

…and plenty of other events over at www.BlueMountain.com.  For example, it’s “Subliminal Marketing Month” and there’s also “National Singles Week”.

Finally, from our business history archives, on September 7, 1998, Google.com was launched from a garage (where else?!?) in Menlo Park, California.